marg26

Or if you want cheap, there's the LEPY LP-2020A amp £25 from amazon (stereo phono and/or 3.5mm jack inputs, speaker wire outputs) - again the mic would plug into laptop. Just got one for a Raspberry Pi hifi with DAC & old speakers for tunes in the shed.

Here's mine from 2018. Was doing this daily 5 days a week all year (milder weather in SE England). Not always this route, sometimes would stay on the roads, or extend it if enough time and energy. Stopped when covid hit. Have moved since so a new commute when I return to the office.

I'm mid 40s, but I only started the process of learning to ride trials just over two years ago. I did a 1h45m session Sunday, and 30m Monday and Tuesday lunch times working from home. I was quite focused on the first two sessions and succeeded (eventually) doing what I set out to achieve, but Tuesday my energy levels were down which meant I tried a few things and moved on to the next when I had enough of the struggle. Have a 2yo boy who still wakes us most nights and early morning, and we keep binge watching TV series where the cliffhangers keep us up late watching the next one! Lockdown/furlough then working from home really helped, and also enabled me to start running where previously I cycled to work daily. I was skinny in my youth and didn't really exercise once I got a car, wasn't until recently years that I started putting a little bit of weight on. Running really helped with getting rid of that weight and also I think getting a bit more strength in lower legs/ankles/feet that trials requires in ways regular cycling doesn't. Motivation as a beginner is some ways easier as I'm sure that I can get better than I am (than I ever was) but due to being mid 40's it's taking longer than if I'd have started even 10 years ago (judging by progress of other riders). Goals help motivation. Decided the other day that if I haven't got a wheel swap or pigeon by the time I'm 50 then I'll call it a day. It's a move my body just can't fathom yet, I can visualize it, I've watched countless tutorials, but if I try to do it feels a million miles away. Saying that, I do just really enjoy doing basic trialsy stuff on my MTB too (really regretting speccing a Shimano hub with such few points of engagement for it now :-/), and which is why I got into trials in the first place. edit: just wanted to add I feel my body is starting to adapt to trials now. I was at some points trying bodyweight strength to improve strength for mtb/trials, but I've more or less dropped it and mostly just using trials as the conditioning I guess.

Finally feel like I'm starting to get somewhere with trials. I'm no longer getting frustrated 8 out of 10 rides and/or getting unrealistic expectations about how good I'll now be on the next ride. Haven't purposely been avoiding pushing to bigger things at all, it's just worked out that way. Still lots of trials techniques to learn and that's not even including street stuff which I've more or less given up on until I've got more of the trials basics covered.

Slight update, I still get bit of a strain, currently in upper left arm, and is a few days after AZ covid jab there (probably coincidence) but I've found, thanks to work colleagues having an informal plank challenge, that attempting to plank longer than 2 minutes actually sorts it right out afterwards, which was nice. Edit: and to add, as far as technique goes, I'm slowly improving. Read an interesting Bashguardian article about rear wheel control. For a while I've been lamenting my lack of efficiency at the technique, but without any idea about what I could do other than keep practicing. Today, realized the connection between muscular tension and balance, so tried less muscular tension and more balance, in other words, I have not been balancing enough and to compensate used muscular tension to avoid completely losing balance. Why not balancing enough? Not relaxed about it. Why not relaxed? Not practiced/experienced enough. Carry on.

That death slope thing above, I've seen evidence that it may in fact be TOO DEATH. Kinda. Evidence by omission. Some riders put a video in the UK Trials Riders facebook group, it must have been too death for them because there ware not clips of them even considering riding down it from the top. Iz disappoint. I imagine it being absolutely terrifying on a proper pure trials bike even if one is a competent trials rider though.

I guess I've made all the same newbie mistakes as all newbies do with it, namely, buying during a spike, expecting it maintain rather than dipping way down below what I paid. I haven't put much cash into it so not a big deal, but hoping to make it back at some point when things rise again as it looks like they do. All the biggest dips are like 3am when I'm in bed so slightly irritating to be unable to take advantage for purchasing.

Yes and all that energy means larger transaction fees as I learnt last night. I've been using Coinbase, playing around with small amounts of crypto, watching the numbers, doing a few conversions when one was up and the other down (until they all went down). Then last night I setup a crypto wallet on my desktop using Exodus. First thing I decided to transfer was the Cardano - a proof of stake currency, the transaction fee for the transfer was around 16p. Next went to transfer the district0x until I saw the transfer fee was around £8-9 almost a quarter of the amount I was playing with. Left it where it is.

I think its the "proof of work" thing about Bitcoin and Ethereum that's the problem with their longevity? Ie it's computationally intensive on hardware, so slower, so the miners have to charge more (gas) for the transactions whereas newer crypto such as Cardano ADA use "proof of stake" which is faster, less resource intensive so cheaper. The UK government is looking into plans to create it's own crpto.

Apparently Paris Hilton litterally dreams about non fungible tokens

Quarter a sheet of medium/fine grit paper, wrap it around a pencil, and sand the excess down. Wear gloves when the callouses are worst. I always get them worse on my left hand too, the right hand they don't seem to get too bad, I'm right handed.

I was just thinking of Fountain by Duchamp, not to mention Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII - an arrangement of 120 fire bricks in a rectangle on the floor, might as well mention unmade beds, shit in tins (is there or isn't there) etc, all this conceptual stuff about authenticity, ownership, value, what-is-art, etc has been a staple of Art for long before NFT came along. Difference I guess is there's still physical objects, so these age, that age increases value, rarity. Also sure there's at least one artist who's exhibited absolutely nothing at all, and probably sold it, but can't remember name from Art History lectures.

£50 last year in ETH would be well over £500 now. I've been well aware of this stuff for years just not looked into it, it's not even like I'm remotely IT illiterate, just ignored it. It never came across as something to casually dip your toes in the water with.

I was speaking to a youth the other week about bitcoin etc, found it really interesting, then this thread, and now I have some Cardano, District0x, and Stellar Lumens. I'm on the waiting list to 'earn' some stuff on Coinbase. I utterly failed as a painter after graduating from university with an art degree.... Maybe NFT's are my chance!? Any tips on where to start being an NFT artist? I've googled, found a couple, found "If you’re planning on selling a couple NFTs for huge prices, Rarible is likely your best bet. On the other hand, if you want to create a multitude of cheaper NFTs, you’ll want to use OpenSea’s Collection Manager" so thinking OpenSea... Uhhhhhhmm Yeah. No idea what I'm doing. Watching numbers is a bit addictive.... hoping I might recoup the transaction fees atleast!

John Langois got one out now, parkour dude "steals" his phone. Ridiculous "chase" ensues.

I should know the answer without looking as recently got a new chainring for mine.... but.... yes 58.

Got the RS Stealth Maxles on my HT, having replaced the front Maxle because it broke. Think they're around 12nm max torque which is easy to exceed with a Y-shaped hex key for example.

Yeah who!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Ha I'm the opposite, been riding trials for 2+ years and wouldn't have the nerve to rear wheel hop off anything 4ft up yet. I'd do it on my MTB, just rolling along and dropping off. Personally I find reducing the width of the object I want to rear-wheel hop off massively increases the fear factor, even if it's not high up at all. Guess that's more due to my technique being a bit jittery. So maybe increasing required precision on lower objects not helpful at all. In which case, yeah just practice, start off at a height you know you can do without a lengthy warm up, keep build up the height during the session until it becomes too difficult and then reduce the height before fatigue sets in so the muscle memory is clean so to speak.

Yeah is a bit naff. But at least the bike has a saddle and rear rack and reflectors

Didn't fancy dingle speed then? I've got an old 26" budget xc frame thinking about setting up with 2 or 3 gears at some point in the future. Keep thinking about adding a gear to my Inspired Console so I get to the skatepark a mile and a half down the road a bit quicker. Just biding my time looking at options as they crop up. Briefly thought about dingle speed on that but decided it would be a step too far for that bike. Did you see people talking on Trials UK FB about old-school friction levers on chain stays for triple gears on rear wheel?

Thanks for the encouragement. Will try pumping the rear up a little.

Not practised a lot on gaps as only recently had the setup to do so, and after my last effort the other month, was pleasantly surprised at getting this far today.

Similar situation, grew up in the countryside too, but have been living in a town basement flat for nearly 8 years. Nowhere to properly maintain bikes, no proper workspace, very limited storage for tools/bike-parts/etc so really frustrating. Only outside space large enough to spend time in was the mankiest pigeon shit covered courtyard and a health risk. Then last year we found our first place, but needed some work, ie new kitchen, central heating upstairs, etc. All tradespeople were so busy (which then delayed other jobs) it wasn't until December we finally moved... This weekend due to weather, was the first weekend where we could actually spend time in the garden, really nice and sunny down here. Tidied some of the rubbish up from the work we had done. Built the kids a mud kitchen, rode my bike on some palettes and lumps of concrete etc. Honestly, it was brilliant!